Doubles team leads Mounties back to title

BRODHEADSVILLE — The pressure was intense, but Stroudsburg's Mariah Bostwick and Maci Kendrick remained focused on their biggest match of the season.

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By JOE MIEGOC

poconorecord.com

By JOE MIEGOC

Posted Oct. 3, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By JOE MIEGOC

Posted Oct. 3, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

BRODHEADSVILLE — The pressure was intense, but Stroudsburg's Mariah Bostwick and Maci Kendrick remained focused on their biggest match of the season.

The Mounties' third doubles team had been in tough spots before against their East Stroudsburg South counterparts and Wednesday would be no different.

Bostwick and Kendrick rallied from down a set and down two game points in the final game before capturing a thrilling 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory to clinch the Mountain Valley Conference regular season girls tennis title for Stroudsburg at Pleasant Valley High School.

The Mounties' 5-2 victory over the Cavaliers earned them their first MVC title since 2010 after ES South ended Stroudsburg's six-year run with back-to-back championships the past two years.

Bostwick and Kendrick had played long, tight matches with Eastburg South's Amanda Jackson and Janet Ro the previous three times they met this season and they expected another in Wednesday's title match, which was forced because the two teams both went 9-1 in conference play during the regular season.

Both matches during the regular season went three sets (Bostwick and Kendrick rallied to win on Sept. 4 before Jackson and Ro won the third set in a tiebreaker on Sept. 24) and the Eastburg South duo won 8-6 in the semifinals of the MVC tournament on Sept. 19.

"Every time we've played them it's gone into three sets so we were expecting a challenge (Wednesday)," Bostwick said. "We knew we would have to fight for every point and fight until the end."

They were right and it didn't come easy.

Stroudsburg (13-3) led 3-2 going into the third doubles match thanks to victories at third singles by Stefi Luna, second doubles (Faith Thaler and Emily Geiger won 6-1, 6-3) and fourth doubles (Kylie Coppinger and Lauren Butler won 6-2, 6-3), but knew it needed a win from its third doubles team to avoid ES South's Poje sisters at first doubles.

Brittany and Kaitlyn Poje combined to lose just five games in victories at first and second singles, and would be sent out again to play first doubles if Jackson and Ro could pull the Cavs (9-4) even.

"It was all about staying really positive," Kendrick said. "We did our best, kept at it and just kept cheering each other on."

Bostwick and Kendrick jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the third set before Jackson and Ro broke serve and held their own to even the set. Bostwick and Kendrick responded by winning the next two games, but couldn't close out the match on their serve as Jackson and Ro broke to stay alive at 5-4.

The Eastburg South pair looked set to extend the set, jumping out to 40-15 lead in the 10th game, before Bostwick and Kendrick mounted a final rally. With the game at deuce, Kendrick stepped in front of a return and hit a net winner to claim the match and set off a loud roar from their teammates.

"That felt incredible," Kendrick said.

Luna got the Mounties started with a shutout victory at third singles.

The conference champion, Luna beat Sarah Mithani 6-0, 6-0 to salvage a point for Stroudsburg in the singles flight.

"I had done the same thing on senior night (against Mithani) so I was pretty confident and hoping I could do the same," Luna said. "I was ready and I was prepared."

Ready and prepared was what Stroudsburg had been focusing on since last Thursday.

The Mounties hadn't played since then, giving them plenty of time to focus in on their biggest match of the season.

"I don't like to coach stress," Stroudsburg coach Adele Gardner said. "I'll address stress, meet it and handle it. What we've continued to do in all our practices and drills was to try to improve and tone the skills. Make sure of the volleys, footwork and keeping the ball in play, and controlling play and not panicking.

"We just continued what we've been doing and did it once more (Wednesday)."